Gold Logs Best Week Since June; Silver Gains For Fifth Week

Gold futures performed best among precious metals this week, rising 2.7%

Gold futures closed to a fresh, more than 11-week high Friday, scoring their fifth weekly increase in six weeks and their best week of advances in almost 8 months.

Gold for April delivery climbed $1.40, or 0.1%, to end at $1,220.80 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The settlement is the highest since Nov. 16 when prices ended at $1,223.90 an ounce. Gold gained, opined analysts, on the heels of a report showing soft wage data.

"The market is convincing itself that wages aren’t going to become a problem," Bloomberg News quoted Bart Melek, head of global commodity strategy at TD Securities in Toronto. "There’s really not a big problem the U.S. central bank needs to fix right now. The gold market is looking at this and saying there’s not a lot pressure to restrict policy at this point."

Gold futures settled up 2.7% this week — their largest weekly gain since the week ended June 10, after sliding 1.4% last week. The yellow metal is 9.3% higher through the first five weeks of this year.

"Eighteen traders and analysts took part in a weekly Wall Street survey. Thirteen voters, or 72%, see gold prices rising by next Friday. Three, or 17%, said lower, while two voters, or 11%, look for a sideways market.

There was heavier-than-normal participation in a Main Street online survey, with 2,234 respondents. A total of 1,430 participants, or 64%, called for gold to rise, while 607, or 27%, saw lower prices. The remaining 197 voters, or 9%, were neutral."

Ending higher Friday for the first time in three days, silver for March delivery added 5 cents, or 0.3%, to $17.479 an ounce. Silver futures extended their weekly win streak to five in a row, with the latest advance at 2%. They are 9.3% higher on the year. On Tuesday, they settled at their best level since Nov. 10.

In PGM futures on Friday and for the week:

April platinum added $7.10, or 0.7%, to $1,006.70 an ounce for a 2.4% weekly increase.

Palladium for March delivery fell $10.05, or 1.3%, to $749 an ounce, paring its gain on the week to 1.4%.

The two metals have rallied so far this year with advances of 11.2% for platinum and 9.6% for palladium.